Federal Government Pays Out Hundreds of $Millions to Dead Bureaucrats

Two of the most loyal constituencies of the Democrats running Washington are bureaucrats and dead people. This story helps us understand why:

In the past five years, the Office of Personnel Management has made more than $601 million in benefits payments to deceased federal annuitants, according to the agency’s inspector general. Total annual payouts range between $100 million and $150 million.

After seeing an army of Obamazombies take over the country, no one should be surprised that dead bureaucrats seem to be increasing their pull:

Improper payments to dead retirees increased 70 percent in the past five years, far higher than the 19 percent climb in overall annuity payments, the report said.

Five years ago was when Democrats led by San Francisco’s Nancy Pelosi took over control of Washington from profligate but comparably responsible RINOs.

Not to worry: bureaucrats who are ostensibly still living have come up with a solution: “occasionally checking records for annuitants 90 years and older to determine whether they are still alive.”

Millions erroneously paid to the relatives of dead bureaucrats constitute only the tip of the iceberg:

Overall, the government’s improper payments totaled about $125 billion in fiscal 2010 – a $15 billion year-to-year increase resulting from a growing number of unemployment insurance and Medicaid payments. …

Last October, an investigation by the office of Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) concluded that the government had paid nearly $1 billion to at least 250,000 dead people since 2000. That same month, a watchdog group reported that the Obama administration’s economic stimulus program had made 89,000 payments of $250 each to dead or incarcerated people.

This is why no matter how high they raise our taxes, our rulers will always spend us into debt.